• Around this time last year, Victoria Azarenka mentioned that she doesn't believe in the concept of confidence. She reiterated that point this week, and here are Peter Bodo's thoughts on the statement.

Azarenka’s statement isn’t nearly as baffling as it is iconoclastic. And it probably helps explain why she’s been able to play with such admirable consistency in an era when that talent is in such short supply. And why, even as she was struggling to reach the top, she took those tough losses to top players in stride. She didn’t make the shots, or the other player did. Simple as that. Can anyone doubt that her attitude is one of the reasons she been so consistent—and successful?

• From the The Guardian, a renowned anti-doping expert says the tennis establishment is stupid if it thinks the introduction of a biological passport alone will curb doping. He says the money is better spent on increasing the number of urine tests for each player.

"The theory (of the passport) is you get the right person at the right times and test them four to five times and then they'll move toward a mean (in their levels). Then if they depart from that mean in the future you can nab them," said Catlin, who admitted that legal issues can make "nabbing" them difficult. "(But) they're going to need so much more than just having more testing; there have got to be experts to interpret the results, people to put in the data and people to double-check it. You can't do much until you get three more samples from a person. Then you start to build. But if you're not doing enough testing the value is not going to be effective. Tennis has the wherewithal to do more. They need to spend more money on research. That's the same through all of sport."

• Interesting suggestion in Jon Wertheim's mailbag: Should Larry Ellison and the Indian Wells management lobby for it to switch places with Miami in the calendar to go second?

• Roger Draper, CEO of the Lawn Tennis Association, is stepping down.
• Non-tennis: From McSweeney's, Applebee's just wants you to know it's not immune to your barbs.

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